The Benue State Government has attributed the delay in payment of December 2020 salaries to the court order garnishing all its accounts.
State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Ngunan Addingi who made this known in Makurdi, the state capital said some aggrieved non-indigenes working in the state who were redeployed to their states of origin in 2007 under the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB had taken the State Government to court to protest the action.
Consequently, in 2008, the court in the case between Juliana Igweka and 95 others versus SUBEB and Attorney-General of Benue State, declared that the affected persons be reinstated in the civil service, pointing out that counsels to the applicants in turn went back to court asking for monetary compensation which was not part of the original judgement.
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Addingi noted that after the applicants failed to get the courts to do their wish in the State, their counsel went to different courts in Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory to secure garnishee orders on all accounts of the State which was served yesterday, thereby crippling all government activities including payment of salaries.
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Michael Gusa described the judgement as fraudulent, saying the courts lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter, moreso that the initial judgement had no monetary attachment.
Gusa noted that the State Government had initiated processes to set aside the garnishee orders as soon as possible and disclosed plans to also approach the National Judicial Council for necessary action against the judges involved.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
